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Declassified UFO / UAP Document

Project 10073 Record Card — Charleston, West Virginia, 28 June 1956

📅 28 June 1956 📍 Charleston, West Virginia 🏛 ATIC 📄 Record Card and Teletype Report
CharlestonWest VirginiaProject 10073searchlightUAP1956

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AI-Generated Summary

TL;DR

A 1956 sighting report from Charleston, West Virginia, involving two airport control tower witnesses who observed a blinking, half-moon shaped object. The official investigation concluded the phenomenon was likely a ground-based searchlight.

On June 28, 1956, at 0325Z, two witnesses at the Kanawha County Airport Control Tower in Charleston, West Virginia, observed an unidentified aerial phenomenon. The witnesses, aged 36 and 41, reported seeing a single object shaped like a half-moon, approximately the size of a nickel held at arm's length. The object was observed through 7x50 power binoculars for a duration of four to five minutes. The witnesses described the object as white and blinking, though it appeared to change to a continuous bluish color at times, with a fluttering appearance. The object moved in a northerly direction. Weather conditions at the time included ground fog and breaks in the overcast. The official conclusion reached by the evaluating agency, ATIC, was that the sighting was likely caused by a searchlight or spotlight reflecting off the cloud cover, given the atmospheric conditions. The report was submitted in accordance with Air Force Regulation 200-2.

Since there was ground fog & breaks in the overcast, it is believed that this object was possibly caused from either a searchlight or a spotlight of some sort.

Official Assessment

Since there was ground fog & breaks in the overcast, it is believed that this object was possibly caused from either a searchlight or a spotlight of some sort. Possibly searchlight.

The object was likely a ground-based searchlight reflecting off clouds.

Witnesses

Organizations

Military Units